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Josiah Bartlet
Bartlet was born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. He is a direct descendant of Josiah Bartlett, a real-world signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Bartlet is a devout Catholic; this is due to the influence of his mother, as his father would have preferred that he be raised Protestant. His relationship with his father was often strained, punctuated by periods when the father would hit young Jed. In a discussion with his subconscious, personified by the "ghost" of Mrs. Landingham, his father is described as "a prick who could never get over the fact that he wasn't as smart as his brothers." Sorkin states that Bartlet's father, "obviously convinced he married some Catholic whore, treats his son terribly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he adopted his mother's religion." Sorkin says that Bartlet's tirade against God in the episode "Two Cathedrals" is therefore directed just as much at his own father. However, when his father's unkind and sometimes abusive treatment of him is mentioned by Toby Ziegler, Bartlet attempts to defend his father to an extent. Though his father is long dead, Toby suggests that Bartlet is still trying to get the man to like him, hoping that "maybe if you get enough votes, win one more election," he will finally be able to earn his father's approval. Bartlet scored a 1590 on his SAT. Later he retook the exam, and received the same results, something both Leo McGarry and Dr. Stanley Keyworth found humorous. He was accepted to Williams, Harvard, and Yale, but instead chose to go to the University of Notre Dame, as he was thinking about becoming a priest. He decided not to become a priest after meeting his wife. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in American studies and a minor in theology. He received a Master's and Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Dartmouth College, where he was a tenured professor prior to entering politics. He speaks four languages, including Latin, English, and German. He was a Nobel Laureate in Economics, and generally is portrayed as a macroeconomist sympathetic to Keynesian views. He was required to split his Nobel Prize with another economist, a much more conservative Japanese man whom he did not particularly like but did respect. He is the author of a book entitled Theory and Practice of Macroeconomics in Developing Countries,10 and his research in economics is described as being focused on the developing world. Before choosing economics as his career, Bartlet considered becoming a priest. He changed his mind upon meeting his future wife, Abigail Barrington, who became a thoracic surgeon. They had three daughters: Elizabeth Anne Westin, Eleanor Emily Bartlet, and Zoey Patricia Bartlet. There are two grandchildren from his oldest daughter, Elizabeth - Annie, who is 12 in the pilot, and Gus, who is about 5 in the fifth season. It is also revealed in the 7th season that middle daughter Ellie is pregnant with what would be Bartlet's third grandchild. He is depicted as a stern but loving father, in contrast to his own father, who (as is seen in flashbacks) was cold and physically abusive. In addition to his three daughters, President Bartlet has paternal feelings towards members of his staff, referring to Charlie Young (his former personal aide) and Josh Lyman (his deputy chief of staff) as his sons, and telling C.J. Cregg (his press secretary and later chief of staff) that she was part of his family. Bartlet suffers from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, which at one time put the future of his presidency in doubt. He and his wife concealed his illness during his initial presidential run and did not disclose the information until well into his first term, leading to allegations of fraud perpetrated upon the voters. He received a Congressional censure because he covered up his MS while he was running for President. Like his ancestor, he was Governor of New Hampshire for two terms, winning re-election with 69% of the vote. Before becoming governor, Bartlet served on the New Hampshire State Board of Education and was a three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A recurring motif throughout the series is Bartlet's inability to remember the names of junior staffers, a trait taken directly from Martin Sheen's own memory tendencies. While wandering the halls and saying goodbye to everyone in the series finale, he remembers everyone and their family members. He is also regularly displayed as having an obsession with trivia, often quizzing staffers (whether they are interested or not). Presidency Bartlet's best friend, Leo McGarry, persuades him to run for president around the fall of 1997, writing the slogan "Bartlet for America" on a cocktail napkin. Although initially a dark horse, Bartlet eventually defeats the Democratic frontrunner, U.S. Senator John Hoynes of Texas, whom Bartlet asks to join the ticket as his vice-presidential running mate. He defeats the Republican nominee for President, winning a close election with just 48 percent of the vote, 48 million popular votes and a 303–235 margin in the Electoral College. Bartlet's accomplishments as President include granting amnesty to illegal immigrants from the Americas, appointing the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice and first female Chief Justice, negotiating a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine, creating millions of new jobs, providing strong support for alternative energy, and orchestrating a Social Security reform plan (although it is never made clear whether the plan was passed by the United States Congress, the show indicates that a revolutionary agreement was achieved with bi-partisan support). He does, however, express regret at his inability to balance the budget in his eight years at the White House. Bartlet does not shy away from using the military when he feels it is necessary during his eight years in the White House, and has to deal with major foreign policy crises in various parts of the world. The Middle East is a recurring source of problems, particularly in Iran, Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the fictional gulf state of Qumar. Bartlet is able to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by negotiating an historic agreement at Camp David in 2005 and deploying peacekeepers to the region, despite opposition to these efforts from both Democrats and Republicans. Terrorism, particularly from the Bahji network based in Qumar, is a continual problem and Bartlet even has to confront the kidnapping of his own daughter at the hands of the group, choosing to ensure the objectivity of the presidency by ceding power to the Republican Speaker of the House until she is liberated from her captors. In Latin America, Bartlet has to deal with situations in Haiti, Colombia and Bolivia. A conflict and genocide in the fictional African nation of Equatorial Kundu leads Bartlet to intervene militarily and declare a bold interventionist foreign policy doctrine. In Asia, Bartlet deals with tensions and near-conflicts between India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, and Russia and China. The latter crisis, in his final year, leads to him deploying 140,000 peacekeepers to prevent a full-blown conflict over oil in Kazakhstan, and this becomes a key issue in the 2006 presidential campaign to succeed him. President Bartlet shows the most affection among his staffers to Josh Lyman, C.J. Cregg, and Sam Seaborn. He predicts that Sam will one day run for president and expresses his faith in Sam's capability. While he clearly respects Toby Ziegler, the two are prone to clash, usually when Toby feels the President is not acting according to his true morality or is ducking important issues. He is pained when he finds out Toby has leaked classified national security information and publicly fires him, but eventually signs a pardon for Toby as his last official act as President.19 He does not get along well with either of his Vice Presidents, John Hoynes or Bob Russell, saying at one point he does not know what either of them are good for. For reasons presumably tied to his own lack of military service, he is somewhat intimidated by acid-tongued Secretary of Defense Miles Hutchinson and deferential to respected Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Percy Fitzwallace. Bartlet is shot in the first season cliffhanger finale "What Kind of Day Has It Been"; his wounds are not serious and quick medical intervention has him on his feet within a few hours. It is later discovered that the shooters were white supremacists from West Virginia and that his bodyman Charlie Young was the intended target of the assassination attempt, not Bartlet himself. In the second season finale, "Two Cathedrals", Bartlet announces to the country that he suffers from multiple sclerosis, and has been keeping it a secret, although this had previously been revealed to the show's audience in the first season episode "He Shall, from Time to Time..." This leads to investigation of Bartlet's administration by a special prosecutor and by the U.S. House of Representatives, a storyline which dominates much of the show's third season.21 Eventually, Bartlet accepts a censure from Congress, which settles all investigations against him. While Bartlet's campaign efforts are damaged by the controversy, he nonetheless defeats the Republican nominee, Governor Robert Ritchie of Florida, by a landslide and is returned for a second term. The election was previously forecast to be close until a debate in San Diego where Bartlet scored a decisive win over Ritchie. Zoey Bartlet is kidnapped on the day of her graduation from Georgetown University, possibly in retaliation for the assassination of the Qumari defense minister, Abdul ibn Shareef, which her father authorized. While Zoey is missing, President Bartlet fears he is incapable of maintaining the necessary dispassion while his daughter is in such danger and invokes Section 3 of the 25th Amendment, declaring himself incapacitated and transferring the powers of the presidency to the next person in the presidential line of succession. Due to the resignation a few days earlier of Vice President Hoynes, the Speaker of the House, Republican Glen Allen Walken, becomes Acting President of the United States.24 Zoey is recovered with only minor injuries several days later; President Bartlet re-assumes his office shortly thereafter. Soon after Bartlet resumes the Presidency, he faces off against the newly elected Speaker of the House (replacing Walken, who was forced to resign his United States House of Representatives seat in order to fulfill his duties as Acting President) on intense budget negotiations that break down to the point where the Federal Government is sent into a shutdown (similar to the 1995 and 1996 shut down during the Clinton administration). Eventually, Bartlet topples the Speaker's influence and sees to it that the Speaker's power declines thereafter. At the end of the fifth season and at the beginning of the sixth season, the Bartlet administration is dragged into the Israeli Arab dispute after terrorists attack U.S. government officials on a trip to Gaza. Eventually after intense peace negotiations at Camp David between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Bartlet manages to secure a peace agreement but at a great cost - he fires his Chief of Staff Leo McGarry in a disagreement over the conflict. McGarry has a heart attack but later returns to work as Special Counsellor to the President. CJ Cregg succeeds him as Chief of Staff. On a trip to China, Bartlet is left temporarily paralyzed by an attack of multiple sclerosis. As a result he briefly uses a wheelchair, like the real-life president Franklin D. Roosevelt, but he soon recovers although he is left somewhat weakened by the attack (Toby Ziegler mentions that after the final Bartlet State of the Union address, the President is not going to be able to spend much if any time stumping for the speech's recommendations due to his health concerns). After seeing Congressman Matt Santos' stirring speech at the Democratic Convention, he has a chat with a New York Democratic leader who had refused to support Santos due to concerns over educational policy; the leader reverses his course after this and Santos becomes the Democratic nominee for the Presidency. The Bartlet Presidential Library opens three years after the end of his term and Bartlet is present at the opening ceremony, along with Kate Harper, C. J. Cregg, Danny Concannon, Charlie Young, Toby Ziegler, Josh Lyman, Will Bailey, and President Matt Santos. Category:Pages Category:People